Is leveling the front really worth it?

After having said "noticeable difference off road and especially on wash board roads" would you go with a different set up or keep the 5100s?

 

I really wanted to go with the 5100 or Ome 883 but I had the Toytec 1/4 top spacers laying around and had them installed. It gave me around 1/2 lift which I think would look great with a 265/70 r17 or 265/75 r16. I have no vibrations and cost me near nothing. I couldn't justify changing new suspension.

 

No, it is much better than stock off road. I am satisfied with the setup. I'm sure the icons or foxs are way better, but more $$ than I wanted to spend.

 

Wish my PC made it to my new home because all my data is on there. Just PCSd and have not received my stuff. But moving on. I have an 06 TRD sport 4x4 dclb. It was stock for the first year or so. I was averaging 22mpg highway and overall 20mpg. After I blew one of the shocks I decided on 5100s for the leveling. 21mpg highway and 19-20mpg overall.

So in short. Going higher will lose some mpg at highway speeds due to the drag. But not enough to make a difference at a small lift. You up that to 3-6 inches, you'll see more minimal loss. Now like it was said before. You add wheels and tires, you'll have more of the loss to mpg.

 

It is not worth it.

 

YES! When I first got my tires I regretted it because the most I was getting was 15.5-16.5 just around town then my brain kicked in and looked up the rotation difference. Now with my calculations I get around 17 so little to no lose in MPG with the tires and OME 884/5100 setup. this is one this that people always forget.

 

Was unexpectedly away from the internet for a few days right after I posted the original post.... Wow didn't expect all of that, but some really good arguments and points for me to think about. I am a college student so money is a factor... I mentioned only 5100's in my first post because that's all I knew from searching the forums; I'm very new to this. (I literally had to google what spacers, diff drop, etc meant haha)

@pollock21 what brand and size of spacers do you recommend? Also how much generally does installation of something like this cost? I will not be doing installation myself, it will be going to whatever shop I find.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/strut-spacers-who-started-with-them.359482/

Read this and ask these folks about spacers - they've all had them

Edit: I would say avoid any and all potential problems and don't mod yet. If you can't afford struts, you can't afford breakage or the ECGS bushing. Be patient and enjoy your stock Tacoma. Mod when you can afford to.

 

I have a 3" lift and no bushing. Never even heard of it until recently. I have a 2011 and no front diff vibrations.

@Mjordan, this is a forum for real deal Tacoma enthusiasts. So most guys are going to tell you to wait and do it right and don't do spacers. But no matter which lift you do there will be tradeoffs.

I'm replacing coil overs now. I had a full mid travel setup "done right" up fromt by most standards on here. But coil overs take work and will need to be rebuilt after a certain amount of time. Mine are at that point, and guess what, no one around me to rebuild them, so I'm replacing with an OME setup. And even if I could find someone to rebuild, what do I drive while waiting? Doing it right has consequences as well and there are tradeoffs for every kit.

Ride is also subjective. You may like the ride on a spacer over strut. Like I said before, guys put spacers on top of a LOT of their aftermarket setups but will tell you not to do it on stock.

Sure, there's a chance you could bend a shock with a spacer lift. And if that happens, which I would bet with your intended use is a very, very, very rare chance, then you can pick up a set of stock shocks off your local CL for around $100 a set. Not the end of the world.

The spacer is the most common lift on the road period. It's also the cheapest. If you want to lift on a budget, go ahead. I was in college once and I know exactly how you feel. So many trucks on the road are running a front level spacer, it's just crazy how many.

I'm sorry, but I'm just not going to tell you to stay away from that. I think it's a great starting point for you.

Ready lift and daystar are two of the more popular level kits out there. Best bet for installation is to call around the local shops and see who has the best rate. Should take no more than 2 hour installation. I'd use that as your baseline when quoting shop rates, or hopefully someone will do it for you for a lump sum.

I went with 5100's for my first lift and was very happy. But I went with all 4 which was triple the cost a level spacer.

Do more research and ultimately come up with your own decision. Spacers will be fine but 5100's will be better. They will also cost you a little more to have installed due building them.

Research away from here as well and try to get a feel. I know so many guys that ran level spacers and never had complaints or broken shocks. Take some time to check out all the lifted trucks you see around town, I'm sure you'll find most of them are on spacers. On here you have a lot of knowledge but the enthusiast in all of us want to tell you to save and do it right. And honestly, that's not as much that something will fail, but that the spacer leads to 51's which leads to coilover.....and on and on.

My. 02 and that always means flaming on here. I just wanted to give you another option to consider because money doesn't grow on trees like so many tend to think it does. Some guys have 3 or 4k sitting around for a lift, a lot of us don't. Another option is to keep an eye on the BST for some used 5100' possibly already built up.

And I don't want to break out another huge debate again, so if this goes sideways just PM me.

 

I would also recommend posting in your regional forum to see if anyone could help you with the install or possibly find a mod day. Lot of great guys on here that would be happy to help. It's not that hard at all with the right tools and will be a great learning experience for you.

 

I've had 3 Toyota with spacer lifts and 1 with a "ball joint spacer" that got beat pretty hard with 240k miles. Never had any issues or failures over a couple hundred thousand miles.

 

Like others have said I would try to stay away from spacer lifts but it is your truck. A lot will tell you to choose the 5100 over a spacer lift anyday. That's what I had at first and loved it. If you can hold off and save up for the right components and in the end you will be happier and be more of an accomplishment and something to take pride in. I know that part is hard but as I have gotten older I have become more patient and in the long run pays off, money wise and truck wise.

 

So I did some searching and I can't seem to find ANY of these "spacer lift failure" threads that show spacers breaking/bending struts? Anybody got a link to the dozens(I'm assuming, right?) of threads there must be documenting and proving without a doubt that they are incredibly bad for a truck?? Am I missing something or is everybody just repeating what they read on the interwebz?

I mean, there are literally TENS OF THOUSANDS of trucks driving around on spacer lifts. I'm sure there are people posting their broken trucks on here, right??

 

That's the biggest thing @Justinlhc, people typically start threads when they have issues. I just found one about an icon rear shock leaking so that must mean those are all bad and people should stay away because they leak.

People post problems. Doesn't mean they are always chronic.

 

It's funny though, I can't find any. I found one on another website that was a 3"+ spacer(lol) that had wore out balljoints, but balljoints are a wearable item and WILL wear out with or without any lift. Lots of people wear out balljoints ESPECIALLY if they off-road a lot. Any lift you put on your truck is going to wear parts out faster whether it's balljoints or CV's.

 

What about the 1/4 space to reduce the "lean"? Mines stock as well, and I got a set of front Bilstein 5100 w/ toytec/eibach springs that I will be installing in a week or two.

 

I've brought this up before, it's ok to use those or even larger to stretch aftermarket lifts to 3" but they're flamed of you throw a spacer on the stock shock to gain an extra 1.5"? You'd have to bottom out that shock pretty freaking hard to bend the bottom.

 

Also, go in a 5100 thread and someone will say to wait and save the extra money to get OME to do it right. Go to OME thread and someone will say to wait and spend a little more and go with King or Icon. So we take a level job and turn it into a full blown mid travel coil over or nothing.

The important thing is to determine your expectations and your level of use and make an informed decision. Based on what the OP said, a spacer more than covers his need.

 

I don't doubt for a second that people can bend struts on a raised truck. That said, I've put top plate spacers on 2 trucks. In BOTH cases, I've made aluminum spacers that are the equal thickness of the top plate spacer, and put them under the bump stops. One of the spacer lifts I did belongs to a 19 year old neighbor kid that flat hammers the daylights out of hs truck. He's broke all sorts of parts and pieces. SO FAR.....No bent struts. No, I'm NOT listed on the anti-spacer club of America members list. They aren't NEARLY as evil as some would say.

 

Agreed. I guess it all depends on what you want to with your truck at the end. I just got mines, so I am still debating on things.